Gazprom offers transporting gas via Belarus

Russia's largest gas company, Gazprom, is preparing to join the Russian-Belarussian gas transportation concern; this preparation process was in the focus of the talks between Alexei Miller, the chairman of the company's board, and Alexander Blokhin, the Russian Federation's Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus, who met Tuesday.

This information was provided by Gazprom's press service.

Miller and Blokhin met to discuss the current status and prospects of the two countries' co-operation in the gas sphere. The two officials also looked into the balance of Russian gas supplies to Belarus, the current payments for gas, and Gazprom's role in privatising Beltransgaz, Belarus's largest company transporting gas to Western Europe.

The annual gas consumption in Belarus amounts to 16.5 billion cubic meters and is totally covered by Russian gas supplies. Of that, Gazprom accounts for about 10.2 billion cubic meters. This year, 4.69 billion cubic meters of gas has already been supplied to Belarus over the past four months.

The Russia-Belarus intergovernmental agreement on enhancing co-operation in the gas sector was signed in the spring of 2002.